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Date Published: 15/07/2022

ARCHIVED - Animal rights groups demand an end to brutal Denia bull run festival

ARCHIVED ARTICLE

The controversial 'Bous a la Mar' in the Marina Alta town, Alicante province, has been declared a Festival of National Tourist Interest

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Animal rights groups demand an end to brutal Denia bull run festival

Few traditions in Spain attract controversy on the scale of bullfighting, and one particular Alicante festival which involves chasing bulls into the sea has once against sparked outcry from animal rights groups who are demanding an outright ban.

Bous a la Mar, declared a Festival of National Tourist Interest, is undoubtedly one of the best-known celebrations in Denia, but one of the main international animal organisations, AnimaNaturalis, has slammed the festival as nothing more than animal cruelty. Together with the Plataforma Animalista de la Marina Alta (PAMA), the organisation has shared disturbing images to support a campaign to ban the fiesta.

And the animal rights groups, together with Denia Animal Save, are staging a series of demonstrations during the festival wihch ends on Sunday July 17.

"We have released these images to show the brutality with which the animals are treated, with dozens of people harassing them, persistently goading them and encouraging them to fall into the sea. Sometimes they even beat them by hiding behind the protective bars," explained a spokesperson for AnimaNaturalis, which is calling for a referendum on the continuity of these festivities.

Meanwhile, Denia Animal Save coordinator Álvaro Tarancón, added that although "the bull is not killed", there is "still a lot of animal mistreatment".

"A bull is not an animal that instinctively knows how to swim and neither are they used to running along these routes in the extremely high temperatures that are being registered in Denia right now."

"Many of the people who take part in these celebrations are drunk and hit the bull, pull its tail, humiliate it, insult it... It is not just because the bull is not killed that there is no mistreatment. This type of action is still not viewed as it should be, two bulls have died from drowning in the past," added Tarancón.

More and more people are opposed to bullfighting and other traditions involving these animals. "In fact they are the majority", according to Denia Animal Save.

"There may be many people who are neither in favour nor against, but deep down they are against and they don't take a stand because they are afraid of the humiliation. In the end, we are dealing with something that is dressed up as a tradition and as part of Spain's cultural heritage."

But the animal rights groups are confident they are "winning the battle" against the continuation of these tradiitons.

"In Barcelona, for example, the former bullring is now a shopping centre. If the population, as we are seeing, shows more and more rejection, it is a battle that will be won," assured Tarancón.

Now read: Beach tragedies: Danish man, 43, and a Spanish pensioner drown in Alicante

Image: AnimaNaturalis/CAS

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